252 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



is required, and no more.^ They card, dye, and spin the wool thu& 

 obtained ; they rear fowl for the eggs, which are either bartered for 

 goods or are sold to the shopkeepers at a rate varying from IO5. the long^ 

 hundred (120) in winter to 3s. Qd. in summer. They also gather car- 

 rageen moss from the rocks at low water, which they dry in the sun and 

 sell at from fourpence to sixpence a stone. The moss, however, requires 

 picking after purchase, as other weed is often mixed with it. 



Even the young children have to take their part in the struggle for 

 existence ; they help at carrying home the turf when saved, tend cattle 

 and sheep and keep them out of the crops, and gather periwinkles, 

 which they sell by the " bucket," for which measure they get about 

 Is. Qd. in the winter season. These periwinkles all find their way tO' 

 the London market. 



Yery little work is done during the winter months. Weed for 

 manure is gathered then, and it is then, too, that poteen is made. 



Altogether, the life of these people is one long struggle against 

 adverse circumstances. The margin between a good year and one of 

 distress is, and must be, from the nature of things, a very narrow one, 

 and a bad season moans destitution. 



2. Family Life and Customs. — Families are large, as a rule, and 

 from an early age the children have to help at household and general 

 work. Quite young children do a lot of work in the way of tending- 

 cattle and sheep, carrying turf, &c., as back -loads. They go to school, 

 if at all, at about six years of age, and leave at thirteen or four- 

 teen. They are said to be smart and intelligent, but are hindered 

 greatly in their progress by the irregularity in attendance caused by 

 their being kept at home to aid in various kinds of work. The result 

 of the early participation in the struggle for existence is that, to use 

 the words of Mr. Healey, National Teacher of Lettermullen, " there is- 

 no childhood, properly speaking. From infants they become little men 

 and women at one step." After leaving school they enter at once into- 

 the regular work of grown-up people. "Very few of the young folk 

 emigrate, though a larger number do so now than formerly. As before 

 stated there is no annual migration to England or Scotland for field 

 work, but a few go to Clare and the east side of the county Galway. 

 The young people of different sexes are not, as a rule, to be seen 

 together, but go in groups by themselves. Public opinion is very strict 

 on the score of their relationship, and a girl would not be allowed to 



1 The average weight of a fleece is about 1^ lbs. Wool is bought to make up 

 deficiency at the average rate of tenpence a pound. 



